Squares through time Over the years Northampton has lost a number of its squares, some completely and remembered only in street name, others have shrunk to a size significantly less than their former extent and others have succumbed to traffic thoroughfares. The public square has been important through history, and we can trace its origins […]
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A “lost church” hidden in plain sight In some streets in London today there are so many coffee shops of one particular chain that you can see the next one further down the same street. In earlier days the same was true of churches, chapels and mission rooms along some streets of Northampton. The St […]
Of the hundreds of people who work in the Moulton Park area of Northampton, few are probably aware that the ground on which they walk was formerly known as King’s Park and was indeed one of the King’s hunting parks.
Old maps reveal a lot about our town. The landscape of St James and Duston has changed unrecognisably in the last 100 years. Looking at an OS map surveyed in 1883 shows an extensive standard gauge railway over a larger part of this area linking various industrial facilities together. My journey started from Stenson Street, […]
Hidden in plain sight! Primrose Hill Congregational Chapel was built 1901-3, but it was not the first home of the meeting on the Kingsthorpe Road. It had started in 1865 from a group that left Doddridge Castle Hill. First meeting in just one room of a cottage in the area, but they had outgrown this […]
ENGLAND’S MEMORABLE ACCIDENTS, 1642. Wednesday, the 26th October. The King’s Souldiers bare ransacked and spoiled the Lord Spencer’s house and Parke, neer Banbury, and the Lord Spencer’s house is also plundered in Northampton-shire by the Cavaliers, although the said Lord hath long attended the King, and sideth with them. Thursday, the 3 of Novem. The […]
A series of historical notes appeared in Northampton Mercury from February 1875 onwards and ran for the next ten years. Titled “Antiquarian Memoranda” they often contained historical material relating to Northamptonshire, sometimes contributed by John Taylor. Antiquarian Memoranda We find several curious particulars concerning the Army and divers of the “separation” at Towcester at the time […]
A series of historical notes appeared in Northampton Mercury from October 1886 onwards and ran for the next three and a half years. Titled “Things old and new” it often contain historical items relating to Northamptonshire, sometimes contributed by John Taylor. 184.—THE LEVELLERS AT NORTHAMPTON Interesting particulars of the Levellers in the Parliamentary Army of 1649 […]
“A Victorian Blogger” John Taylor was the son of a Northampton printer and publisher of the same names; he was born in Northampton on April 13th, 1831. John was educated at Northampton Grammar School, at a private school run by a Mr Emery, in College Street, Northampton, and for two years at the Castle Hill […]
A new map shows the locations of nonconformist chapels within Northampton. Some buildings were used by several different denominations over the years. As a consequence of redevelopment, not all buildings are still in existence, particularly in the central area. If you zoom and click on the marker of interest full details about the use of the building is […]